Overcoming January Achievement Syndrome

[A Proposed Theory]

When you navigate socmed recently, it is hard not to see the backlash of netizens to a post of an influencer who criticized some Filipinos for being sad as they return to work this New Year. The said influencer claimed that people should instead feel grateful for having the chance to earn for a living. Most of the reactions dwelled on the invalidation of people’s feelings and realities especially that not everyone has the same affordances or privileges as other people have.

Jon Acuff already introduced in his book Finish that many of New Year’s resolutions tend to fail even before February because people stop doing their resolutions entirely by the time they break it and return to what they have always been doing. People want everything to be perfect, and if it’s not, then the resolutions will be abandoned. Acuff suggested that we should still continue our resolutions even after breaking it on a day.

Why else do people feel sad on January? Perhaps, it’s because they still want to stay at home and bond some more with their loved ones. They still feel that the vacation is not enough to recover for the work they gave all year round. The conditions at work may be intense while the compensation may not be enough to feed the entire family in a month. Some people have to experience poor transportation system. Having to wait in lines and travel in heavy traffic, it is indeed difficult to spend that time, which they could have spent somewhere else only if they had better options.

I also feel the same way. When the year started, I sometimes feel hard to do a workout. I will wake up early only to press the snooze button or ignore the alarms altogether. I also break my diet. I feel down when I see my planner untouched thinking of my undone activities and other backlogs like I have many dreams in my mind, but I can’t start any of them. I always look for the will to start, but it doesn’t come in any way. It is not always as easy as before.

The reason for this frustration is what I will call January Achievement Syndrome.

In December, we summed all our accomplishments for the year. We often feel proud of what we achieved. Despite experiencing adversities, we end up victorious. Our prayers are full of thanksgiving and our yearend essay (for us who write one) says almost everything. We are glad to see that most of the things we wanted for ourselves materialized and the things that were not even in our wildest imagination happened. We realize the power of having those we once didn’t know we possess, and we tap at the back of our shoulders telling ourselves that we indeed did a good job.

Unlike our monumental and celebratory vibe in December, starting the year is different. We may be tempted to compare our fresh start with our previously well-accomplished year. We have the tendency to expect victories right away. We sometimes forget that what we had in the previous year are hard earned, and all of them did not come overnight. We want to manufacture success instantly the way they make burgers in fastfood. We may tend to feel sad because no matter how hard we try, pray, or work hard, success doesn’t knock at our doors or appear before our doorsteps the way we welcome it in the previous year. We expect a speedy success — that’s January Achievement Syndrome.

What can you do?

Pace yourself. Run the race the way runners run a marathon. Run in your own pace. You should not run the way you ran in the previous year or the way other runners do. That will only produce exhaustion. The more you force yourself, the more you will run out of energy and drive to continue. You should calibrate your system the way they should respond to your now or present realities.

Free your mind. It is difficult to operate when there’s so much in your plate. Imagine holding sand on your hand. You cannot hold it longer unless you place it in a bottle. Hence, you have to organize your life again. A cluttered mind will be challenging to choose what you want. We will always want to do many things all at the same time. In our existence, we knew already that multitasking will not work, but if it does, it will take our work a little  bit longer. As a result, we get frustrated initially with what is happening with our life. Remove what is not necessary.

Do not invalidate your feelings. If you feel sad, tired, or unmotivated, you have to acknowledge and accept them that they are in your system. In the Pixar movie Inside Out, Joy always dismissed Sadness and blamed her for what happened to Riley, not knowing that being sad is part of the process. If you are regretful or embarrassed, no need to justify your beliefs to escape these feelings. Accept them and embrace that you have weaknesses and mishaps.

Act. When you’re ready, fire! You don’t have to force yourself. Go back when you feel like giving it another try. I always believe on the 5-second rule. It’s even harder when we press the snooze button. When we’re ready, we have to act and count just 5 seconds. Otherwise, we know it. They will never happen, or it will take more time before we do what we need to do. Like when we sleep, when we wake up and press the snooze button, we may need another round of sleep to experience the real feeling of having a complete sleep.

January may not be an easy one, but we can still overcome our greatest and earliest battles, only if we are not that too hard to ourselves. Being kind to ourselves is already an accomplishment. Chill, the year has just started.